Route 66 in Barstow, CA - a city of murals
Our Route 66 adventure brought us to Barstow, California. This is a town that has seen multiple booms and busts of the past 150 years so so and is currently…well let’s just say it’s not in a boom time. However, good times may be in the area’s future and it has come back on more than one occasion.
Barstow became Barstow in 1886 being named after William Barstow Strong, president of the Santa Fe Railroad. Barstow was known as Grapevine and later Camp Sugarloaf during the 1850s. In the 1880s, it became Waterman Junction due to silver mining activities.
The town had a boom period when nearby Calico was a big mining hub with silver being the ore of yore. The town was grubstaked by John C. King whose nephew was Walter Knott of Knott’s Berry Farm fame and, later, owner of the whole darned town.
After the mining days passed Barstow later became a big railroad town and the railroads are still a big player in the town. But old steam engines required a lot of attention and a train used to have a crew of four meaning every train through town had four humans aboard. Plus the number of ground crew that it took to keep steam engines running meant there was lots of employment opportunities in Barstow and anywhere the railroad ran.
There is a beautiful Harvey House in Barstow that houses a Route 66 museum and a train museum along with a number of old artifacts of the railroads including a few locomotives and cars.
Then came diesels which can just run and run and now you only need a crew of one or two people even on a mile long freight train.
The town also saw a boom in WWII where Barstow became a big military hub for troop transports and other comings and goings.
Oh, and let’s not forget Route 66. The road would bring thousands of people per day through Barstow - people whose cars weren’t as reliable as modern cars. They weren’t rocketing by on I15 on their way to Vegas, they were meandering the Mother Road and needed a place to stay and eat and just relax for a bit.
The murals of Barstow
In an effort to make Barstow less bleary the town has collaborated on having murals painted all over the place. There are some that are whimsical, some that are informative and they’re all a colorful portrayal of history and stories.
Barstow was part of the Old National Trails Highway as well as the Mormon Trail so there are murals depicting that history. Funny, to me, the National Trails Highway mural and the vintage car appears to be heading down a very steep grade with a rabbit running away. But the funny thing, to me, is that the occupants don’t look concerned about the impending downhill drive.
Another mural that tickled my funny bone was the one depicting prohibition and bootlegging. Apparently Barstow was quite the bootlegging hub during prohibition and the mural depicts one bootlegger where a cow stumbled into his product. That cow because quite drunk but, despite the circumstances, the hooch sold anyway.
Like many Route 66 towns Barstow has a collection of old motor hotels that serve differently nowadays. Some still accept guests, some are permanent living quarters and some are just ghosts of the past. One of those ghosts is the El Rancho which burned to the ground but whose large sign remains. That motel was unusual in that it was built with railroad ties from the defunct Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad. There’s an interesting story about this here.
The sign remains and it’s a great photo spot but that’s about it.
Unfortunately Barstow as it currently sits is challenged by homelessness, lack of income and business and just seems like it won’t be getting a lot of stars on many tourism websites. There are plans for a huge railroad operation here so let’s hope that that can bring some prosperity to a town that really feels like a place to keep your distance at the moment.
The Harvey House in Barstow
I’ve already shared the history of the Harvey House system above but one beautiful example of a Harvey House is here in Barstow along the train tracks. Duh.
Today the elaborate building houses several museums including a Route 66 Museum as well as a train museum. There is also a second-floor NASA exhibit. The building seems very well preserved and is just beautiful. The museums and displays are free and there are also several pieces of railroad history sitting outside the museum, although they are all static displays.
A mural depicting the history of Del Taco
Del Taco Numero Uno
If you’ve ever eaten at a Del Taco did you know that nearby Yermo is where the chain was founded in 1964? Yup, and so we had to go to the self-proclaimed oldest Del Taco restaurant still owned by the original family.
All those asterisks in the description are apt because the first Del Taco is a goner. The Del Taco in Barstow, at 401 N First Street in Barstow, claims title to being the oldest and the company itself refers to this as their number one store.
Honestly it’s a Del Taco and there’s really nothing to make this historic although I do like Del Taco and it was Tuesday when we visited so we had to have tacos. There is a tribute mural inside sharing the history of the chain because of course there is.
Barstow Station
I had always thought that Barstow Station was a legitimate train station but, really, someone collected a bunch of railroad passenger cars and box cars and built a building around it. Shows what I know. We visited the Barstow Station with the McDonald’s being the biggest tenant there and Kate got a free apple pie from Ronald for her birthday. Thanks, Ronald!
Barstow Station has a number of gift shops and restaurants and it’s interesting to see how the railroad cars impact the architecture as the dining room is in the railroad passenger cars and some of the shops are in the old box cars.
The Stone Hotel
Nearby Daggett was growing along with Barstow as a railroad town and one of the buildings built was the Stone Hotel. The original structure on this site was a wooden hotel and eating house built by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long—it burned down almost immediately after construction. In 1883, Victor Van Briesen replaced the charred remains with something sturdier: a new two-story stone hotel. The ground floor served meals to hungry rail passengers and workers, while the second floor offered lodging.
Van Briesen sold the hotel portion to Seymour Alf in 1885, though he kept the restaurant space and tried to turn it into the Capitol Saloon. That venture fizzled quickly, and by the following year, Alf had taken over the whole operation and rebranded it as the Railroad Eating House.
One of the more significant regulars at the hotel was Walter “Death Valley Scotty” Scott. While the second floor is now gone because, duh, fire the stone portion remains.
The Daggett Garage
The Daggett Garage began life in the 1880s at the borax town of Marion, located on the northeast shore of Calico Dry Lake as a locomotive repair roundhouse for the narrow-gauge Daggett Railroad. Daggett blacksmith Seymour Alf used a twenty mule team to move the building to the Waterloo Mill And Mine, southwest Of Calico, circa 1896. In that location is also served the railroad. Then Walter Alf Seymour’s sone moved it again to the current location around 1912.
The building was an auto repair shop on the National Old Trails Highway until World War I, when it became a mess hall for the United States Army Troops Guarding the local railroad bridges. The Fouts Brothers bought the building in 1946 and operated an automotive repair and machine shop in it until the mid-1980s. Now the building is owned and operated by The Golden Mining And Trucking Company.
Rainbow Basin
We also visited Rainbow Basin with Peggy having an article about this place from a previous visit.
Calico Ghost Town Campground
We spent a few days in the Calico Ghost Town Campground and we have an article about that.
